The cable man laughed at me. It seems people don't NOT (I know, double negative) have cable or some other television service- according to the cable man.
After reviewing our television viewing habits, and noticing that the only cable channels we watch are Disney and Noggin (I believe you have heard me mention this before. Somewhere. Can't find the posts, however. Sorry, no link.), we decided to cancel our cable TV service and pocket the savings. A good savings, might I add. $70.00 a month. Afterall, we originally began our cable service in honor of the Summer Olympics so we could get multiple channels for viewing. Oh, and because of my love affair with the Olympics. (You can read about that here and here.)
When I requested the change, cable man asked if we were switching to a satellite service.
Pink is for me. Blue= cable man, of course.
"Nope, we're not."
chuckling, "Well, Ma'am, no one does that. No one cancels their service without replacing it with something else."
"Well, Sir, we do."
"What about your sports programs? How will you get your sports?"
"We don't watch a lot of sports. We just don't have time for that."
snickering, "Ok, what about your movies? People are saving a lot of money these days by staying home from the theaters and watching movies on the movie channels."
"Well, we don't have any of the movie channels anyway."
"You don't have any of the movie channels?! Ma'am, you do realize you have HD service right now, what if we just downgrade?"
"Yes, I realize that. Thank you very much. No downgrade necessary. We just want to cancel."
"Ma'am, let's see if we can work out a package for you. What does your family watch?"
"Really, the only television we watch is children's programming. And we can get that from PBS from now on. The rest of our shows are on network channels- and we don't have to pay for those."
chuckling, again, "PBS? OK. But what about-"
"Please, just cancel our cable. Thank you."
"Sure. I just haven't heard of anyone doing this before."
"We want to keep our internet and phone. Can you tell me what my new bill should be?"
"It looks like you should be saving about $70.00 a month."
"Thank you."
So, please tell me I'm not alone. I'm pretty sure other people watch *Gasp!* ONLY network television. Right?
And let me just report, we have been watching ONLY network television for about two weeks now. I think we are OK. I haven't noticed any strange side effects oozing from our little deprived bodies. No plagues, poxes or diseases. Yet.
It has been nice. The husband and I still record (through our computer) any of the programs that we watch and save them for after the children are in bed. And we're not suffering because that cable box has been removed. I believe we will survive. But I do miss the digital clock display on that box. So, that tells me I was paying $70.00 a month to know what the time was. Time is money.
The cable man laughed at me.
And I don't care.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
20 comments:
We haven't had cable since we left BYU, and that was free BYU cable. We have had an antenna ever since we moved here two years ago. You are not alone! We hardly even watch network TV. You are not alone! :)
Nice customer service! I would (probably not do it)complain. And I think my family is fine. In the 10 years we have been married we have NEVER had cable of any kind. We now have or ghetto HD converter box...which I might add gives the illusion of a cable box...and we get more channels. The only ones we ever watch really are PBS and Qubo. It's 51-2 for all the childrens shows.My kids LOVE them. I think you will be just fine and suffer no ill effects. But that's just my opinion, from 10 years of personal experience.
I don't have any TV right now. I love it.
Let him laugh! He can laugh himself silly!!
We have cable at my house, but we certainly do NOT need it. Its become a luxory. Good on ya for giving it up. I think more of us should!
you can get any TV cable or network show, you watch through the internet, just download them.. we have our computer hooked up to the t.v so we can watch all the shows we want on the tv through the computer.
I have had a few of those conversations myself. We have been network TVers for quite some time and don't really miss it. The only thing that happens is the TV gets shut off quicker because there are fewer channels to surf through!
We don't have anything. My 17 year old hates that we can't watch all the sports in the world, but we survive just fine.
you make me laugh. love that conversation. you always know how to stand your ground. Time is money. that was a funny expensive clock!
We don't have cable either (and not planning to ever get it) and we're healthy & normal too! :)
We just had a similar experience. Decided to cancel to save some money. I do miss the 3 channels I did watch, but 3 channels for $70 was just not worth it. We did pay however $30 for a new antena so we can still see some things in HD!
since my husband and i are doing apx this summer, we decided just to pay to get the internet and forgo getting cable for the 5 months of being out here. now, i admit, when people say,"i'm not a tv watcher" or "i'm too busy for tv", that truly baffles me. i love tv. i love it more than napping(and i LOOOOVE napping!)! but, now that we have the internet, i have discovered hulu.com! an amazing site that has TONS of tv shows on it, all for FREE. so, it looks like you CAN live without cable, but still keep any addiction to tv intact, as long as you have the world wide web. awesome.
We have the most basic cable and only get about 23 channels. We think it is great and it is true you do watch less tv. Way to stand your ground!
good for you. besides, pbs is the best. but what about "preschool on tv?" how will your children learn without noggin for their education?
We did the same thing in January. The cable people thought it was strange, but not unheard of. We did find out that for just a few dollars each month the cable company offers a local channels only (we can't get anything with an antenna here) and still qualify for a bundle discount for internet- it's just not available unless you ask for it. So, we saved a ton of money and the kids get Saturday tv. Ta-ching! Good for you guys!
Wow, I thought we were alone too, but look at all the comments!
We have a giant antenna stuffed up in the rafters of our garage. We don't have cable and we don't need it.
People come around all the time to sell us cable TV, and when I tell them we don't have it and don't want it, they don't know what to say.
It's a great conversation ender.
We watch House and Prison Break over the internet. Our regular stations barely come in, like, I don't think we even get PBS at all. Our kids only watch kid movies or Dora videos. We get stuff from the library for the kids or if we really want something for us and it's new, we try Red Box. I think it's awesome that you canceled your cable.
You are not alone. When we moved back into an apartment we decided to get rid of cable. All we were watching on cable was Disney, noggin, and other children shows. Now we just have networks channels to. I like it because when I find the time in the afternoon to sit and watch tv, i don't have to compete with other children shows. My husband and I watch our other shows on the computer with hulu. My older kids get on hulu also to watch Disney channel.
looks like your not alone, I bet that feels good. We are seriously contemplating canceling ours too. all the $ we would save is only a small in the big picture of encouraging our kids to be creative instead of vegging in front of the tv.
I'm a little slow at reading - so busy lately.
Oh my, what a smile you gave me. I can't believe you are still living. I asked the spouse at one point in life if we could just git rid of it and he about died, he said NO WAY! Without cable in EMC we would not get any channels. EMC has terrible reception and we are not allowed to put antennas and such objects on our roof without approval. So, here we are still living with cable and not watching it too often. Kids sure keep you occupied so you don't need TV.
Who needs cable when we have the Internet! Silly, silly man. I feel bad for him! I mean there IS life without cable for heavens sake. We downgraded our satellite and it's great. Maybe we should re-think and cancel the whole shebang! I wonder what would happen when I called? Because lets be honest - there is NEVER ANYTHING ON TV ANYWAY!
Post a Comment